Hard Drive Questions

[Homicydal7o2]

I am looking to build my new computer soon(putting it together myself).

I am looking at getting either a Intel I5-2500K or the I7-2600K and a Z68 Motherboard(Asus P8Z68 most likely).
My question is about hard drives. I want a fast 1TB HD to boot from and I see people recommending either the
Samsung Spin Point F3 or the Western Digital Caviar Black. What do I want to look for in a HD? Do I want SATA 6.0Gb/s &
7200 RPM? Or are the SATA 3.0GB/s good enough? I was thinking on the Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
3.5 that is on Newegg for $55. I have a small SSD, but I was going to use it to support the Intel Smart Response Technology on the Z68 Chipset.
Is this a bad Idea? I don't need super fast load times for my games..ect so I don't plan using the SSD for the OS boot disk.
I can't post a link to the Seagate here, but this is the one I am thinking about:
"newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=22-148-697&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo"

Thanks in advance for the advice!

[Asera]

Spinpoint F3 is a bit cheaper and generally the same speed as a Cav Black.

If you want to drop to the $55 range, you're better off with a Cav Blue than a Seagate.

Honestly, I would throw the extra money at a WD, their warranty service is far better than Samsung or Seagate, in my experience anyway.

[Dyrtnap]

This is slightly off topic but I just put together a new gaming comp and though research decided to go with an AMD chipset. The main reason is the price and the fact that it competitive with the Intel set. I got the best 6 core AMD that newegg sells for $189 and the best ASUS AMD gaming board on Newegg for $230ish. I'm guessing you would spend the money for both for an intel processor in many cases. Also I went with a board that is able to to upgrade to the 8 core's when they hit the market to ensure that the computer is slightly more future proof.

Processor:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103913

Board:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131735

Saving the money on the processor allowed me to spend a lot more in other area's that I would have had to skip on to get in under $1200 I would check in to see if you can buy they AMD stuff and a better ssd and still come out cheaper which I think you will.
OT:

Personally I went with a Hitachi 2TB 7200 RPM 6.0 with a 64 mg cache. But I don't have a ssd as I was pushing my resources thin as it was with all the other stuff I bought. Even without it my HD is lightning fast I would think it was around $80 on sale. I didn't study into HD's as much as the other components but am extremely happy with what I bought and again its speed is still blowing me away and before I didn't have a complete garbage HD either.

HD:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145473.

Hope this helps even though its off topic.

[Semisane]

There are a couple options for you, but first off I would recommend going with a slightly smaller drive as your boot drive. Keep just the OS and games that you use a lot.

The WD VelociRaptor (newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136557) would be good.

If that is still a little above your price range then I would suggest going with 2 (newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795) and running them in a RAID 0 configuration.

These options will give you fast boot times and program launch times so you wont be stuck waiting and are much more affordable than SSD's.

Call me a fan boy if you wish but I wouldn't go with any platter drive not made by WD simply because they have the best track record for customer support and Seagate charges you just to call them.

[Asera]

With a lot of 120GB SSD's approaching 1GB/$, the Raptor drives make less and less sense.

As much as I LOVE Raptors...

[Deleted]

OP, having both drives, take my advice

Get the WD black, it's faster at random reads and more reliable, I had two samsung f3's die on me, using WDCB 1TB 64mb cache as my boot drive, it's quicker for general use than the F3 but the F3 is a little faster at sequential.

[taekvideo]

OP, having both drives, take my advice

Get the WD black, it's faster at random reads and more reliable, I had two samsung f3's die on me, using WDCB 1TB 64mb cache as my boot drive, it's quicker for general use than the F3 but the F3 is a little faster at sequential.

You shouldn't use personal experiences to determine "reliability"... the sample size is far too small for an accurate assessment.
The reality is that Spinpoint f3's are extremely reliable drives, and only a small percentage are duds. You just got unlucky.

[Mazaxist]

get SSD at least 80gb if you have money - loads wow EXTREMELY fast. less than 2 seconds